Pianist Thomas “T.J.” Lymenstull is widely sought after as a soloist, chamber musician and guest teacher. His performances have been featured on WFMT Chicago, the Voice of America, and National Public Radio. He has performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and numerous other orchestras, and has performed with the Kronos Quartet, Charles Castleman, Eudice Shapiro, Ron Leonard, and still performs as the pianist of the Interlochen Trio. Lymenstull was first prizewinner in the Joanna Hodges (later Virginia Waring) Piano Competition and the Fresno Philharmonic Rotary Young Artists Competitions, and was a prizewinner in several other national and international competitions.
Lymenstull has appeared as a guest artist, masterclass teacher, and competition judge throughout the USA, as well as in Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, and in over 25 cities in China. In 2023 he was the first American pianist after the post-Covid reopening to give masterclasses at the Shanghai and Sichuan conservatories and the Shenzhen Arts School. He has been guest artist and professor at the Shanghai International Piano Festival, Amalfi Coast Music Festival, and Montecito Music Festival.
Having served as Associate Professor of Piano Pedagogy at the University of Southern California, Lymenstull joined the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Academy in 1998 to focus on performing and teaching. At the Academy, Lymenstull built a class of outstanding students from across the US and around the world. His students have won national and international prizes in the US and China, and continued their studies at Juilliard, Curtis, Eastman, New England, Peabody, Oberlin, Cleveland, San Francisco, Universities of Michigan, Southern California and Indiana, and other top conservatories and music schools in the US and Europe. Since retiring in 2024 from regular teaching at the Arts Academy, Dr. Lymenstull continues to perform, judge competitions, and give guest masterclasses, most recently in China, Japan, and Vietnam, as well as in the USA.
Dr. Lymenstull received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and the Performer’s Certificate in piano from the Eastman School of Music, and received his Doctorate from the University of Southern California. In addition to piano, he studied conducting and opera, both in his MM and DMA programs and as a Fulbright Fellow in Vienna, Austria. Dr. Lymenstull considers that experience invaluable to the perspectives and musicianship he brings to his performing and teaching. His teachers in piano have included John Perry, Cecile Genhart, Frank Glazer, Alexander Jenner, and John Simms, and in conducting and opera, Robert Spillman, Natalie Limonick, Harald Goetz, Karl Oesterreicher, Hans Beer and Julius Kalmar.